Ince boosts junior lawyer pay by over a quarter to £90k
Offers associates cut of new business in rewards shake-up
Ince has upped the salaries of its London newly qualified (NQ) lawyers by over a quarter.
Salaries for fresh faced associates have moved from £71,000 to £90,000 with immediate effect, the outfit confirmed. This equates to a very sizeable uplift of £19,000 or 27%.
Ince confirmed increases have also taken place across all other associate salary bands.
The firm has rolled out a new “introducer bonus” which sees associates who attract new clients through its doors receive a 10% slice of the fees on each matter relating to that new client. This is on top of the firm’s existing discretionary and hours-based rewards.
The Legal Cheek 2022 Firms Most List shows the cash injection puts Ince’s London lot on par with those at Ashurst and Baker McKenzie, and £2k better off than NQs at DLA Piper and Simmons & Simmons.
A spokesperson for the firm said: “Ince can confirm that it will be raising starting salaries for newly qualified lawyers as well as introducing a new financial incentive to reward associates who bring in new clients. The increase comes into immediate effect for all Ince’s fee earners in London, and will follow for those in the other UK offices in the coming months.”
They added:
“The revisions reflect the current market dynamic to increase starting salaries. Ince remains committed to attracting and retaining world class talent, both through competitive remuneration and offering compelling career progression opportunities.”
The war to attract and retain the best junior lawyer talent is showing no signs of waning.
Last week Herbert Smith Freehills joined the battle with a new and improved NQ base rate of £105,000, just a day after Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner and Mishcon de Reya bumped junior salaries to £95,000 and £83,000, respectively.
55 Comments
Anon
Now that’s how you make a statement!
Top whack phat
Properly phat, especially considering it’s coming from a two-bit bucketshop like Ince Gordon Dadds. You were lucky to get £58k there as an NQ in 2018. Unbelievable.
Anon
How can Clydes still be paying NQs 70k?!
Pay war enthusiast
Ooh boiii I do love this pay war. Ince is now paying it’s lawyers more than what some MC firms were paying 2years ago. Let the games continue.
Will be interesting to see if the US firm allure will remain so strong if MC/SC start pushing to the 120-30 range in a few years.
Magic Cycle
Agreed- US firms won’t ever raise London wages above NY/US base wages so there will be far more consolidation in the market within the next five years or so.
Uhh
Unless they pick up salaries in the US as well? Which is bound to happen at some point (likely jumpstarted by Cravath or Wachtell), at which point the consolidation in London will start disappearing as well
Confused
Why is this getting downvoted?
US legal salaries will likely increase too over the next few years. They’re not going to remain static forever
You know
Yeah this is correct, but they won’t rocket by a jump of 20%+.
For a UK firm to whack up pay to almost six figures when some of its competitors pay a third less, that’s huge.
Anon
Everyone has known for some time that the US dominance is really in post qualified pay (2PQ+) and bonuses. Those absolutely crush U.K. firms. These rises at NQ are nice but US still pretty far ahead, and I don’t think it’ll do all that much to stop associates leaving for US firms if it’s money they want.
Ray
That’s how you get people like me to now learn your name and go visit your website haha
Anon
honestly baffled by this. Not sure how any firms around £75k can justify it with Ince on £90k now!
A
A
Golden T*rd Circle Firms
Didn’t they win the ROF Golden T*rd a few years ago?
Anon
Yes, they did.
It’s not a well run place. If theoretically you had a choice of firms and you pick Ince based on this salary increase, you’re a fool.
Infomercial
Sure did lmao, clearly that doesn’t stop them from actually paying their sweaty assets proper money tho
Hm?
“The firm has rolled out a new “introducer bonus” which sees associates who attract new clients through its doors receive a 10% slice of the fees on each matter relating to that new client.”
That could, for some, be a hugely profitable incentive… I wonder what, if any, limits/stipulations are attached to this – is it for the lifecycle of the client? Capped at £X per annum? Limited to the first Y number of instructions?
Anon
They’ll be bringing in some personal injury client at best lol not Goldman Sachs
CMS 2 PQE
Is Ince hiring at the moment…would be quite an uplift and I don’t fancy having cold gruel for Christmas two years in a row.
Lol
Lol at 2pqe shouldn’t you be on 100k at least?
Real
Yet CMS is far superior to Ince in basically every practice area except shipping…which is an irrelevant area anyway 🥱
FRESHER ALEEEEEERT
😀 😀 😀
Hmm
That’s impressive and you haters were dissing ince not too long ago.
Fffgv
That’s impressive and you haters were dissing ince not too long ago.
Yeaaah boi
Pay warrrrsssss yeahhh boi lawyers gonna milking the psss
Wow
This is a crazy increase, especially when you consider that they get a 25% bonus when they hit only 1500 hours (from The Lawyer) meaning a NQ would get paid 112,500 :O
Anon
Not bad. Not enough to make me want to work at Ince though
Sigh
I’ll take a TC anywhere at this point loooool
Spy
hey FA
Lets have some fun
If law firms were football teams, who would be which?
Anon
Top 5 of epl – mc
Man Utd – ince
Real Madrid – Latham
PSG – Kirkland
fresher alert
If law firms were football teams, you would still be a fresher at the local polytechnic.
Fickle
LC before: Ince is a sweatshop lmao
LC after: YESSSSSSSS KING, INCE 4 LIFE
Topkek
Lmao so true u clever kent
Average Pay War Enjoyer
The firms that raised NQ salaries by a grand or two from pre-COVID rates are looking like memes now.
Chris
This firm doesn’t have a single ranking in Chambers UK for London firms? It has just two in the UK-wide category? How is this possible?
Anon
It’s possible because they’re only known for their shipping practice
Alan
This is a big jump for the market. If firms have increased revenue by a hefty figure, they should be paying associates or they’ll lose them and with the lost associates the booster profit will soon be gone too.
Anon
MC salaries are now officially a joke.
US
All irrelevant. The bonuses just announced at NY firms just highlight the gulf between the two.
serious Q
I know this place is usually troll central…but is it better to train at a reasonably good firm even if they do seats you don’t really have any interest in or to reject the TC and keep applying to firms that have seats you have an interest in? Basically is it better to just accept the TC or to keep running the race of finding a TC that aligns with your interest in this climate?
Average Pay War Enjoyer
Depends how transferrable those seats are to what you want to do. Corporate to banking is a different ballgame than debt recovery to patent litigation.
chobbywobby11
And, even here, good luck getting a banking nQ position if you didn’t do a seat in it. 🤡
Lol
I always wondered how that works to be a NQ in a seat you haven’t even done b4 Lool
Also on another note why isn’t there a list for in-house TCs for those that don’t wanna go private practice?
Pinsent Masons NQ
Spare a thought for us lowly paid Pinsent NQ’s on a measly £75k Laughable that firms like IGD pay more than us
Chin up soldier
That’s not that low, 75k was MC/SC territory a few years ago
I’d just like to know please
What is the NQ salary at dwf?
Uh huh
Two peanuts and a bowl of lukewarm gruel per annum.
6 year PQE
It’s probably changed by now but I knew an NQ at DWF about 2 years ago that was on circa £45k – they’re really tight lipped about salaries from what I’ve been told and seem to get you negotiating in the room rather than having “bands”. I knew a solicitor there also in the London office who was on about £65k or there about as a 3PQE and yet there were others on more with less PQE apparently. Hopefully someone with more recent knowledge can chime in and correct me if I’m wrong.
Anon
Was this for London?
John
Lol probably like 60k same as US firm
Paralegals
Truth
Please 75k salary is good 😂 don’t let 100k+ Salary fool you into thinking otherwise especially when it comes to take home salary and the amount of “hours” required to work for that 100k+ salary
Maple syrup over shirt :(
While I agree that 75k is definitely a good salary especially compared to other professions, the take home argument doesn’t mean much.
Every salary is subject to income tax so it’s a bit redundant
Truth
Fairs
Anon
Ridiculous!!
Trainee
Cms just bumped to around 95k + 15% firm wide fee earner bonus + up to 40% bonus based on billable/other contributions
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